Why customer success is critical to revenue growth in 2025 and beyond

The SaaS industry is undergoing a profound transformation. While new customer acquisition has long been the centerpiece of growth strategies, the rising cost of acquisition and an increased focus on profitability are shifting the spotlight to renewals and expansions within the existing customer base.

In this new landscape, customer success (CS) is no longer just about guiding customers toward their goals – it’s becoming a core driver of revenue.

With approximately 40% of SaaS revenue now stemming from renewals and expansion, according to Benchmarkit, CS teams are positioned to play a pivotal role in revenue generation.

For Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) and VPs of Revenue, leveraging CS as a strategic revenue engine is no longer optional—it’s essential for long-term growth in 2025 and beyond.

How CS drives expansion

Customer success has evolved far beyond its original mandate of reducing churn and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Today, it’s one of the most effective tools for driving revenue growth. As Marilee Bear, Gainsight’s Chief Revenue Officer, points out, around 40% of SaaS revenue now comes from just expansion, and CS is absolutely in the best position to identify and influence those opportunities.

Unlike sales teams that traditionally focus on upselling and cross-selling, customer success teams maintain an intimate, ongoing relationship with the customer. This positions them to uncover opportunities for expansion naturally as they work alongside clients to meet their business goals.

The continuous engagement with customers offers CS teams a deep understanding of how products and services are being utilized. With this knowledge, they can identify customers who are ready for an upgrade, additional seats, or complementary solutions, long before the renewal date.

But driving expansion is not just about identifying opportunities; it’s about integrating expansion into the customer journey. The most successful companies are weaving customer success into the revenue strategy from the start.

Rather than being an afterthought or a siloed department, CS is deeply interwoven into the pre-sales process and continues to add value throughout the customer lifecycle. This integrated approach ensures that expansion is a natural, strategic outcome of an effective customer success operation.

Additionally, expansion opportunities are often hidden in what Bear calls meaningful moments, such as when customers engage deeply with specific features, hit key adoption milestones, or achieve significant outcomes with your product. These moments, when acted on effectively, can turn existing accounts into major sources of growth.

The bottom line is clear: If customer success is not actively driving expansion, significant revenue potential is being left untapped. In this evolving SaaS environment, CROs and revenue leaders need to empower CS teams to embrace a revenue-first mindset and integrate expansion efforts into every aspect of the customer experience.

Spotting expansion signs with digital CS and AI

In a data-driven world, relying on manual processes and instinct to spot expansion opportunities is no longer sufficient. The future of Customer Success lies in the use of digital-first strategies and AI-powered tools to predict churn and uncover growth opportunities.

Marilee Bear emphasizes this shift, noting, The best CS teams are using AI to surface expansion signals early. They’re finding new executive stakeholders, increasing product adoption, and spotting readiness for an upgrade—all in real time.

AI and digital CS enable teams to analyze vast amounts of unstructured data—like customer conversations, product usage analytics, and support tickets—and turn it into actionable insights.

For example, when customers begin using a feature heavily or repeatedly engage with a particular product capability, these behaviors can signal readiness for an upsell. AI tools like Gainsight’s Staircase AI are designed to highlight these signals, empowering Customer Success teams to act quickly and strategically.

Digital CS also makes scaling these efforts possible. Automated playbooks and in-app nudges ensure that customers are receiving timely, personalized interactions without requiring additional headcount.

For instance, an automated playbook can trigger when an account demonstrates expansion readiness, guiding the customer success team through the right steps for outreach and engagement. Similarly, self-service upgrades allow customers to take action on their own when they’re ready, driving low-touch, high-margin growth at scale.

By combining AI and digital-first strategies, Customer Success teams are no longer reactive—they’re proactively driving expansion. Instead of hoping for growth to occur organically, they can predict and influence it with precision. This data-driven approach not only improves efficiency, but also ensures that expansion becomes an integral part of the customer journey, resulting in consistent revenue growth.

Expansion tools with less manual effort

Driving expansion in today’s SaaS landscape requires tools that reduce manual effort while amplifying impact. AI and automation have become game-changers in this regard, transforming CS into a scalable, revenue-focused function.

As Marilee Bear explains, CS teams that embed AI and automation into their expansion strategies are able to drive revenue growth with less headcount.

One of the key benefits of AI-powered CS tools is their ability to streamline workflows and eliminate repetitive tasks.

For example, tools like Staircase AI analyze customer interactions across platforms such as email, Slack, and Zoom to identify expansion signals. These signals can trigger targeted actions, such as an automated outreach sequence or a recommendation for a new product feature.

By automating these processes, CS teams can focus on building relationships and guiding customers toward success rather than getting bogged down in administrative tasks.

Another advantage of these tools is the consistency they bring to the customer success function.

In the past, expansion often depended on the experience and intuition of individual Customer Success Managers (CSMs). AI democratizes this expertise, equipping every team member with insights that would otherwise take years to develop. This not only improves the accuracy of expansion efforts but also ensures that no opportunities slip through the cracks.

Digital-first tools like automated playbooks and in-app guidance also make it easier to drive expansion in a cost-effective way.

For example, automated workflows can identify when a customer is engaging with a feature tied to a premium offering and prompt a self-service upgrade option. This eliminates the need for a sales conversation, while still capturing growth opportunities.

The tools available today do more than just save time – they fundamentally change how CS teams operate. By leveraging AI and automation, CS leaders can build a repeatable, scalable strategy for driving expansion, allowing their teams to focus on what truly matters: delivering value and generating revenue.

Conclusion

As the SaaS industry continues to shift toward renewals and expansions as primary revenue drivers, the role of customer success has never been more critical. No longer limited to preventing churn, CS teams are now central to identifying and influencing expansion opportunities.

By embedding AI and digital-first strategies into their workflows, CS teams can spot expansion signals earlier, act on them with precision, and scale their efforts with less manual effort.

For revenue leaders, the message is clear: customer success must be a cornerstone of your revenue strategy in today’s SaaS landscape. By empowering CS teams with the right tools and fostering a culture of revenue ownership, you can unlock the full growth potential of your existing customer base, turning CS into a true profit center. The companies that embrace this shift will scale faster, retain more revenue, and lead the SaaS market into the future.